"I'm not in a position where I can access my money right now," I said quietly. "I sent what I could the other day, but I'll have to go to the bank and get cash and then bring the cash when I can get there. I have a lot going on right now."
"You have til Friday," she said. "You need to have it in hand by Friday, baby girl and this isn’t a game. They said they've been protecting her for too long and you don't want to burn a bridge with them."
The threat was clear even though it wasn't said out loud.
I hung up feeling like the walls were closing in. Friday. Three days from now. Yes I had the money, but like I said, I couldn’t just access it right now. Being threatened really made my blood boil. While being held up here, I had shit that could break me going on outside of this. People blackmailing and extorting the fuck out of me, while this nigga Kaseem snatched my ass, only adding to my problems. That’s why I’m a firm believer and what they say. You never know what a person has going on behind closed doors.
Then I called Nyla and River on three-way. The second they heard my voice they started screaming.
"Where the HELL are you?" Nyla was yelling. "We've been to your house three times. Your pops told us you went on a trip but we were about to file a police report. Damn you went M.I.A. What’s tea?”
"We were scared as hell thinking something was really wrong," River added. "Girl, you just vanished."
I looked at the guard standing in the doorway and lowered my voice. "A lot has happened. I need you guys to calm down for a second. Soon, I’ll be able to tell you everything."
"Calm down?" River said. "You disappear for days and you want us to calm down?"
"I'm getting married," I said it fast, like ripping off a band-aid.
The silence on the other end was loud.
"You're WHAT?" Nyla practically screamed it.
"In less than thirty days. I need you both to clear your schedules so we can do dress shopping next week. I'll call you soon with more details."
"Married?" River was going OFF. "Tatti, who the hell are you marrying? You barely know Savion. What has it been? Five or six months? You don’t know that nigga like that. I didn’t even think it was that damn serious.”
"It's not him," I said.
More silence.
"Oh, hell nah! What the fuck is going on?Married to who? You don’t have no hoes. Are you okay Tattiana?” Nyla said. "We're your best friends and we're finding out like this?"
"It wasn't my choice," I said, and that was the most honest thing I could say without saying everything. "I just have to go with the flow right now."
"Tatti, what is going on?" River's voice had shifted. She was scared now. "Are you OK, like seriously. Are you safe?"
"I'm safe. I promise I'm safe. I'll explain everything when I can, but right now I can't. Just know that I'm OK and I'm handling it."
We talked for a few more minutes, them asking a million questions I couldn't answer, me promising to call them back later. When I finally hung up, they were still yelling questions into the phone.
I took the phone back to his office with the guard on my heels until I walked into the office with Kaseem.
He was sitting at his desk looking at numbers on his computer. I sat down in the chair across from him.
He looked up at me and his face shifted.
"What's wrong?" he asked.
"Just family business," I said.
He nodded like he understood that some things didn't need explanation.
"Your driver can take me anywhere I need to go and I won’t put up a fuss,” I said carefully. "But on Friday I need to go to the bank, and then I need to visit some family. Before you, I had obligations. People I helped. I don't want to go into details, but after helping you identify your threat, that's all I'm asking."
He looked at me for a long moment.
"That's cool," he said. Short. Dry. But not angry.
